Daniel Konhauser: Punk Rock, Dub, and Buddhism
Gray Area’s Cultural Incubator Program is a 6 month commitment to develop a project that applies art and technology for social and civic impact. Membership includes peer to peer support, shared workspace at the historic Grand Theater, and opportunities for public presentations. Our current cohort is preparing for their final showcase on August 11th. Leading up to the showcase we will be sharing interviews with the members to highlight what they are working on at Gray Area and beyond.
Daniel Konhauser is working on “Past, Present, Future” which features a contemporary fortune telling machine. This interactive object lives at the intersection of pseudoscience, the occult, and the carnival. Daniel will create an environment that incorporates a performative guided experience. The work uses text, sound, and light to engage the audience in a reinvention of analog-era experiences.
Describe your background and what led you to Gray Area.
My formative years were spent attending Punk Rock shows. Seeing bands like The Sleepers, Factrix, and Flipper convinced me to pursue my own creative endeavors. I attended SFAI (San Francisco Art Institute). Howard Fried and Paul Kos (Performance/Video) showed me how to stay fully engaged with conceptual work while Al Wong (Alternative Film) emphasized the Buddhist admonition “when you do something, you should burn yourself up completely”.
I have long admired the works of Lynn Hershman-Leeson and wanted to bring the interactive aspects of her installations to my own work. The Immersive Showcases and Creative Coding Meetups at Gray Area have been inspiring and informational in learning how to use code and hardware to achieve this end.
Describe your work. What do you make and why?
Sound has always been an important part of my practice. Creating compositions for Maxine Moerman Dancetheatre created an interest in making work that reaches beyond the flat, 2D space, and that is informed by physical movement. This has led to my creation of “interactive objects”, such as the Fortune Telling Machine. Jamaican Dub Music has been a never ending source of inspiration — the concept of “version” — a reimagination of an existing “riddim”, using the studio as an instrument. Its hypnotic, stripped-down quality is something I strive for in both my sound and visual compositions. My goal is to create a trance-like timeless state.
What is one of your favorite/most successful pieces?
“Mode VII” is an interactive Gregorian Chant that I showed at Root Division in the “Endangered Languages” show. This interactive object was made with London-based musician, Astrud Steehouder of the band Paper Dollhouse. I enjoy collaboration because it can bring about an alchemical transformation of the individual elements.
This work was inspired by Hanna Regev, who curated the Root Division show, and challenged me to use an endangered musical idiom. The audience/participant touches the “square note” Gregorian Chant notation mounted on a capacitive touch surface. The original score, as sung by Astrud, can then be manipulated using different note sequences and combinations.
Why did you decide to join Gray Area’s Cultural Incubator?
I enjoy the supportive, inclusive, and innovative programming at Gray Area events. The annual conference has brought in Creative Coding pioneers and features collaborative, public facing projects such as Data Canvas. I joined the Incubator program to develop a new work over a six month period, in a co-working environment/space, with ongoing feedback from peers.
The initial input I received helped tilt the emphasis of the Fortune Telling Machine project, “Past Present Future”, towards my interest in the occult. Initially, I was hesitant about publicly speaking about the work before it was finished, on Demo Day, but the event provided a great opportunity to clarify the intention of the piece, and focus its further development. In addition, members of the Incubator have reached out and helped me with content, and their fabrication skills. Also, I took a wonderful p5.js workshop with Chelley Sherman, and her encouragement has inspired me to develop unique user interfaces for instruments and sonic generators.
